October 13, 2008

ALCS 3: Rays 9, Red Sox 1

But the Rays scored a run in the second on a walk, a single and a groundout. Then the Red Sox had men at second and third with one out and could not score -- though they were relying on Varitek and Cora. Lester was then pounded in the third. Bartlett singled, Iwamura doubled off the Wall, and Upton crushed a three-run dong over everything in left. After Pena struck out looking, Longoria homered to left-center.

Boston could not get anything going against Garza. Pedroia doubled with one out in the first, but was stranded. Then the Sox "stranded a pair" in the second. They had a runner on base in each of the next four innings, but could not move any of them to second. Garza began the seventh at 107 pitches. He seemed gassed as he walked Varitek and allowed a single down the right field line to Cora. Howell came in and gave up a sac fly to Ellsbury, which made the score 5-1. Pedroia then grounded into a 5-4-3 DP to end the inning. The only baserunner for Boston in the final two innings was Drew's two-out single in the eighth.

Byrd relieved Lester in the sixth and pitched the rest of the way. He gave up a three-run home run to Baldelli in the eighth that put the game on ice. Pena pounded a dong to left-center in the ninth as an exclamation point.

The one Boston run in the seventh meant that the Red Sox avoided being shut out at Fenway Park in a post-season game for the first time since Game 5 of the 1918 World Series.

After splitting the first two games, the ALCS is now a best-of-5 -- and Boston has both home field advantage and Jon Lester set to pitch two of those possible five games.

Lester made three starts against the Rays this season, allowing only two runs in 20 innings (0.90 ERA). 18 hits, six walks, 19 strikeouts. He had a 2.49 ERA in 17 Fenway starts. He was second on the Red Sox staff with a 143 ERA+.

Garza -- in the first full season of his career -- started four games against the Red Sox, allowing 14 runs (11 earned) in 22 innings (4.50). He walked seven, struck out 10 and gave up four dongs. His 118 ERA+ was third best on the Rays staff.

There are rumblings that Alex Cora may get a start today. I'd rather Terry Francona stick to putting the best players in the lineup, thank you very much. But the Assassin loves Einstein, so I hope Flo and Lyndon pick today to come out of their offensive shells.

Corsi Combover has some fine Columbus Day art at SoSH. It's Thanksgiving Day in Canada and we're off with some friends and their dogs. You're on your own as far as links go, but the ProJo blog has press conference transcripts and a bunch of other stuff in one place.

Watching Red Sox Classics on NESN... Not only was the game a classic, but so was the banter in the booth. Classic Don and Jerry.

Remy: "Do you ever get eye gunk?"Don: "Sure, I get eye gunk. Do you ever get eye gunk?"Remy: "Of course I get eye gunk. When do you get eye gunk?"Don: "I usually have eye gunk in the morning. Other than that, my eyes are gunk-free."

Amalie Benjamin, from her online chat earlier today: "I think we all sort of knew what was going to happen when Francona put Timlin into the game. ... When you're forced to use Timlin, unless you're up by quite a few runs, you've really already lost that game."

Francona prefers Cora against power righthanded pitchers. "It seems like it's been more of a fit for Alex. I anticipate Jed being right back in there tomorrow. Sometimes you have different ways of being a good team. Sometimes you don't. We always make sure Jed, when he goes out to take his grounders today, knows that he's not being punished."

Ellsbury (hitless in his last 17 AB, 0-for-11 in the ALCS) is 6 for 13 with a walk against Garza.

Re Ortiz: "He came out yesterday and just peppered that Wall. I thought that was really an intelligent thing to do. When he has the ability to hit that Wall, he has the ability to hit the ball anywhere with power. And he came out and just beat the [manure] out of that wall."

Hello all...still smarting a bit over the last game; Tito can't afford to give away games in a 7-game series by bringing in Mike Timlin's Corpse over just about anybody else in the pen. Still, I'm ready to see Lester kick some ass today!

TBS, you fucking jerks, just tell the audience that the Rays have been given two free outs. Don't try to justify it. Don't try to tell us that "both teams are mad." And don't show the damn pitch tracker thing if you're gonna act like the strike zone is irrelevant.

Jacoby breaks back on a ball that's in, and Caray says, "he broke back..." but still gets it. Baldelli does the same thing and he calls it "surrounding the ball" as if he purposely took the wrong path to the ball.

That's the second time in the series Eva has done the "wave everyone else off" move and NOT caught the ball. It's like singing Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye and then losing. Fuckin ARod imitator with the cockiness of Jeter. He's the worst of both worlds.